Two Men in Austin, Texas Targeted in Anti-Gay Hate Crime

"Matt Morgan and Emmanuel Winston say they've filed a complaint with A-P-D after a group of men beat them down, yelling slurs, late Friday night
They were walking near Austin City Hall.
'I'm not gonna go through this and nothing...no action be taken. This is a walk that I've made, that probably everyone on this field has made numerous times and felt safe,' said victim Matthew Morgan.
Morgan hit a home run during game one of Sunday's Softball Austin doubleheader....Both men say their attackers seemed surprised that the softball players fought back.
'We want people to know that its not ok to do this and we're taking a stand because we don't want people to live in fear,' said victim Emmanuel Winston."

Comments

Just a little background info here. Austin City Hall is the main public parking lot for the three biggest gay bars in town. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to profile this area. My friends and I have had slurs shouted at us once or twice walking to the bars. It is not common but I have heard of incidents where red-neck kids come in from the country to get some gays on 4th st. Austin is well known to love its gays.

Posted by: John | Feb 22, 2010 11:15:14 AM

Good for them for fighting back and not being silent about it!

Posted by: androjai | Feb 22, 2010 12:03:13 PM

Austin may be nominally blue, but the bedrock is still red. Welcome to Texas.

Posted by: ElsieElsie | Feb 22, 2010 12:10:35 PM

Bash back, good for you two. Brings a new meaning to fag bashing.

Posted by: patrick nyc | Feb 22, 2010 12:43:14 PM

Matt and I both felt that it was important that people knew about the incident. I have been so surprised by how many other people have come up to me and shared their personal experiences of being attacked because they were gay. It is 2010, I'd like to think that we live in a bit more evolved and educated society.

I'm 23 years old and I would like to make sure that the younger generation of gay men and women don't have to put up with the same ignorance and fear that I've had to. It all starts with taking one step, I really hope this will encourage people to speak out against hate.

Posted by: Emmanuel | Feb 22, 2010 1:46:24 PM

I hope one of those attackers got a black eye as bad as Emmanuel's.

What can we do in Austin to start controlling this? Last year I recall 2 attacks, one on the bus.

Posted by: macscruff | Feb 22, 2010 2:15:47 PM

I moved to Austin from NYC 10 years ago.

Now Austin has 2 things in common with NY...gaybashing and flying planes into buildings.

The point I'm making is that assholism is universal...granted, Austin is a cool place, but unfortunately, it's surrounded by Texas.

I'm really proud of these guys for fighting back and taking this further...maybe I'll start going to see some of their games.

Well It's about Fucking time that we fight back. Good for them I hope they beat the shit out of the bashers. We need to do more of this instead of cowering in the corner crying.

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